Protests against the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdowere held in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East and parts of Africa over the weekend, as crowds demonstrated against the magazine's portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad, according to news reports.

A sharp increase in the number of Ethiopian journalists fleeing into exile has been recorded by the Committee to Protect Journalists in the past 12 months. More than 30--twice the number of exiles CPJ documented in 2012 and 2013 combined--were forced to leave after the government began a campaign of arrests. In October, Nicole Schilit of CPJ's Journalist Assistance program and Martial Tourneur of partner group Reporters Without Borders traveled to Nairobi in Kenya to meet some of those forced to flee.

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The Kenyan press is being caught in the crossfire as authorities seek to strengthen defenses against terrorists. On December 19, Kenya's president signed into law a security bill that has the power to stop the press covering terror attacks. The government has also recently criticized the media over allegations that special units are carrying out extra-judicial killings, and a local journalist who reports on security issues has gone into hiding after receiving threats.

Today, the Committee to Protect Journalists in collaboration with local media organizations launched a journalist security guide and protocol designed specifically for the Kenyan press. The initiative stems from research conducted in 2013 by the same group of organizations, the Kenya Media Working Group, in light of acute and unique security challenges for the Kenyan press coming to light that year.

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"Not
sure I can talk about my 'career' just yet--I'm still just getting started!"
freelance photographer Camille
Lepagetold
the photography site Petapixel in
October 2013.

Less than a year later, Lepage's body was found in a car in the Central African Republic, according to news reports citing the French government. She had been traveling with fighters of the anti-Balaka Christian militia and was killed in an ambush, the reports said.

Today, CPJ partnered with Reporters
Without Borders and Rory Peck Trust
in a joint open
letter calling on Kenya's Cabinet Secretary of Interior, Joseph Ole Lenku,
to provide clarity on the government's refugee policy and to exempt journalists
from forced relocation to the refugee camps. On March 25, Lenku ordered
all urban refugees to relocate to one of two refugee camps in a bid to tighten
security amid continuing violence, including an attack on a church in
Mombasa. His order came despite the fact that a similar government directive in
2012 was ruled unconstitutional
by the High Court.

EDITOR'S NOTE: February 15, 2014 marked one year since Omwa Ombara
arrived in the U.S. to seek political asylum after attempts on her life in
Kenya between May and December 2012. She fled her native land after being
contacted by International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators probing the
violence that followed the Kenyan elections in 2007-2008, in which more than
1,000 people were killed, according to news reports. Ombara
was never a witness, nor did she ever meet any ICC investigators, but the mere
suspicion that she was participating in the ICC process prompted a spate of
threats. She describes her own ordeal and the culture of silence that has
settled over most of the Kenyan media. CPJ's Journalist Assistance program
supported Ombara throughout her ordeal.

Should journalists expect support and
protection from security agents when they risk their lives to report on
security operations? What if their coverage could potentially expose military
strategies? Why are journalists disparaged as unpatriotic when they show how
security operations fail?

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"Mr. President, you gagged us!" said a
banner tied to the gates of Parliament today. Kenya's Editors Guild and the
Kenya Correspondents' Association organized peaceful demonstrations across the
country to protest a media
bill currently under parliamentary review. Protests were held in every county in the
country, according to William Janak, chairman of the correspondents'
association, including roughly 80 to 100 protesters in the port-city of Mombasa,
100 in the central city of Kisumu, and 400 in the capital, Nairobi.

Few in Kenya's media could comprehend how a media bill, considered the most repressive in Kenya's 50-year history, could sail so easily through Parliament last week. Fittingly, Parliament passed the Kenya Information and Communications Amendment Bill on Halloween. It is awaiting President Uhuru Kenyatta's signature following a 14- day deliberation period.